A new report by the pest-control company Orkin ranks New York City in 8th place of the most bed bug-infested cities in the U.S. The good news? We used to be 4th. Here’s everything you need to know.
Bedbugs are true horrors that should only be allowed to live in nightmares; the number one reason to cross the street when you see a discarded mattress. If you’ve lived in the city a while, you’ve either had a colleague who’s had a problem with them if not had a problem with the yourself. A little good news for those of you as creeped out by these tiny bugs as we are… we’re only the 8th most bed bug-infested city in the country.
Doesn’t sound like good news to you? No? Well, last year we were in 4th place …so when it comes to infestations, we’ll take good news where we can get it.
The list comes courtesy of pest-control specialists, Orkin. Their ranking is based on the number of bed bug treatments requested in each metropolitan area between December 1, 2016 and November 30, 2017. At last, a city ranking we’re glad not to be number 1 on (even if we are number one in the state… but shhh. we don’t need to think about that.)
Baltimore took the No. 1 spot for the second year in a row, followed by Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles and Columbus, and Ohio.
Bed bugs thrive in condos and apartments, something NYC has to spare, perhaps that’s why we can’t escape the top 10.
How do we protect ourselves form a potential bed bug problem? Orkin recommends:
- Thoroughly inspect the places where bed bugs hide through the day: mattress tags and seams, and behind baseboards, headboards, electrical outlets and picture frames.
- Try to keep your apparent as uncluttered as possible to make the bugs easier to spot.
- Be very careful bringing secondhand furniture into your home.
Here’s the full list of the top 50 cities that bed bugs call home:
1. Baltimore
2. Washington, D.C.
3. Chicago
4. Los Angeles (+2)
5. Columbus, Ohio
6. Cincinnati (+2)
7. Detroit
8. New York City (-4)
9. San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose
10. Dallas-Fort Worth (+5)
11. Indianapolis
12. Philadelphia
13. Atlanta (+3)
14. Cleveland-Akron-Canton, Ohio (-1)
15. Raleigh-Durham, N.C. (-3)
16. Richmond-Petersburg, Va. (-5)
17. Houston
18. Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News, Va. (+2)
19. Charlotte, N.C. (-3)
20. Buffalo, N.Y. (-2)
21. Knoxville, Tenn.
22. Nashville, Tenn. (+1)
23. Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek, Mich. (+4)
24. Pittsburgh
25. Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C.-Asheville, N.C.
26. Champaign-Springfield-Decatur, Ill. (+4)
27. Phoenix (-1)
28. Denver (-6)
29. Milwaukee
30. Hartford-New Haven, Conn. (+1)
31. Charleston-Huntington, W.Va. (+5)
32. Boston (-4)
33. Syracuse, N.Y. (+7)
34. Dayton, Ohio (-2)
35. St. Louis (+2)
36. Seattle (-2)
37. Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (+9)
38. Flint-Saginaw-Bay City, M.I. (new to list)
39. Omaha, N.E. (-6)
40. Cedar Rapids-Waterloo-Dubuque, Iowa (-2)
41. San Diego (new to list)
42. Lexington, Ky. (+1)
43. Honolulu, Hawaii (+5)
44. Louisville, Ky. (-3)
45. Las Vegas (+4)
46. Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem, N.C. (-4)
47. New Orleans (new to list)
48. Myrtle Beach-Florence, S.C. (-9)
49. Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla. (-14)
50. Albany-Schenectady-Troy, N.Y. (new to list)
Featured image source [Wikimedia Commons]